NCJ Number
159186
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 57 Issue: 6 Dated: (October 1995) Pages: 84-87
Date Published
1995
Length
4 pages
Annotation
To confront the challenges facing inmate health care, corrections must turn to the emerging principles of managed health care.
Abstract
Under a managed health care system, a network of contractors provides health care services, and patients are directed to contracted health care providers through limitation on benefits to those insured who use non-contract providers; use management and quality assurance systems are in place, and financial risk is shared by both patients and health-care providers. Risk-sharing creates incentives for physicians to reduce the number and cost of their services. Because corrections medical staff include practitioners from the community who periodically visit facilities to render health care to inmates and employees, remote access to data is critical. One of the major deficiencies in correctional health care is a workable, cost-effective information management system that will allow for on-line retrieval of health care data. Another critical issue is how inmates use health care. Co-paying encourages inmates to seek health care services appropriately and discourages them from frivolously seeking health care. The physician must be the gatekeeper of resource allocation in corrections. One mechanism for facilitating this role is to have a peer review committee to review programs and standards of care periodically. 1 reference